Definitive proof Joe Ingles is not that guy in your YMCA game — he's a Jazz playoff hero

Joe Ingles looks like the former Division II offensive lineman who slimmed down by playing pickup basketball at your YMCA after work. But Joe Ingles is a starter for one of the best teams in the NBA, the Utah Jazz. Really.

Still, many NBA fans had never heard of Ingles until this month, as the Jazz have engaged in the best first-round series of this postseason vs. the Los Angeles Clippers. So let us fill you in on one of the NBA’s most easy-going, sarcastic and underrated players.

1. Joe Ingles has won championships in two of the world’s best leagues.

Ingles started his basketball career with the short-lived South Dragons of Australia’s National Basketball League. He was NBL rookie of the year as a 19-year-old in 2006-07 and All-NBL Third Team in 2008-09. That season culminated in the Dragons winning a championship in their third season of existence — and promptly folding.

Here’s an eight-year-old highlight reel of Ingles with the Dragons:

Ingles left to Spain, where he became a solid role player for FC Barcelona (the basketball side of Lionel Messi’s soccer club). But he made another leap, this time to Maccabi Tel Aviv, where he was on David Blatt’s 2013-14 Euroleague championship team as a key player in a similar role to what he does for the Jazz now.

2. The Clippers should have Joe Ingles right now, but they made a ruthless cut instead.

In late October 2014, Ingles finished up the Clippers’ last preseason game while his wife, Renae, was on a flight from Australia to meet him. The Clippers waived Ingles before she landed. “I was on the team when she took off,” Ingles said, “and then when she got to the airport, I wasn’t. It was pretty disappointing.”

Quin Snyder had coached against Ingles in Europe and thought he was worth a flier. The Jazz picked him up, and Ingles made the 2014-15 Waltons. He was something of a novelty — a wise-cracking, shot-phobic Aussie who would surely be gone once Utah got good.

Many perceived the Jazz’s pickup of Ingles as at least partially to help fellow Australian Dante Exum, the No. 5 overall pick in the 2014 NBA Draft, adjust to his new setting. And Ingles played that role admirably, especially when Exum missed his second season with a knee injury. But somewhere along the line, Joe Ingles became the Jazz’s best 2014-15 Australian rookie.

3. Joe Ingles succeeds at everything he tries to do.

This is what a glue guy is supposed to be, after all. Here are Joe Ingles’ roles for the Jazz:

• Knock-down shooter: The easy way to say this is Ingles was third in the NBA in making 44.3% of his 3s. But here’s more context: Ingles was one of 16 players in the NBA this season with a True Shooting Percentage of .600 or better while taking more than 40% of their field goal attempts from behind the arc.

• Staunch team and one-on-one defender: In addition to his impressive 1.8 Defensive Box Plus/Minus, Ingles has proven that during this series, in particular when matched up against Clippers shooting guard J.J. Redick.

Rewatching the game… Joe Ingles did such a ridiculously good job on J.J. Redick defensively. This block is great. pic.twitter.com/JKpTvK58j7

• Point-forward extraordinaire: As FanRag Sports’ Andrew Bailey said in more depth here, Ingles has long been asked to run the offense at times for the Jazz. Neither Exum nor George Hill is a traditional ball-dominant point guard, so the opportunity to be a playmaker is frequently. Ingles not only leads the Jazz in postseason assists, but his 21 also are almost double Hill and Boris Diaw’s 11 each.

A big part of Ingles’ role is that he never plays outside himself. He never takes a bad shot because he knows the Jazz have better scorers. He doesn’t try fancy dribbling moves or reach for bad steal or block attempts. He’s the glue guy, not the main attraction, and he is acutely aware of it.

4. Joe Ingles is ridiculously big and strong.

Here’s where the “He’d get picked last in a YMCA game” logic fails. Ingles is 6-8, 226 pounds. He’s not very fast, no, but he is very strong. Passes like this are equal parts skill and power:

5. Joe Ingles is a postseason hero.

When Gordon Hayward was too sick to go in the second half of Game 4 on Sunday, everyone assumed Rodney Hood and Joe Johnson would have to pick up his slack. They did. But so did the other Joe.

That might have been the most important shot of the most important game of the series. It effectively shut the door on any Clippers comeback and prevented them from taking a 3-1 lead back home for Game 5.

Joe Ingles is a very good basketball player. If he showed up at your YMCA, he wouldn’t have to leave the court until he decided to. He’s in the NBA because he does everything anyone asks of him well.

Definitive proof Joe Ingles is not that guy in your YMCA game — he's a Jazz playoff hero

Joe Ingles is a Utah Jazz legend now.

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